Tag: pawpaw

Thanks for joining me for the second installment of the “pawpaw diaries”. This weeks episodes features a video and recipe for pawpaw pie. Considering that pawpaw is the largest indigenous North American fruit, I think I’m justified in saying that pawpaw pie is more American than apple pie. Apples immigrated to North America with the European colonists while pawpaw was here long before they arrived.

Natural growing range of pawpaw

One interesting thing about the pawpaw tree is its flowers, which are tri-lobed and face the ground when in bloom. These funny flowers aren’t very fragrant and what little fragrance they have isn’t very friendly. Their smell has been likened to rotting meat which explains their native pollinators: blow flies, carrion beetles and the occasional fruit fly. I put my nose up to a flower in the Spring and really didn’t notice a smell at all. Pollinated flowers yield fruit that ripens by late September and early October here in Southwest Michigan. Ripe fruit drops from the trees and is a highly prized meal for deer, squirrels, fox, raccoons, possum and black bears. It’s rare to find an unblemished fruit on the ground. Usually they’ve been snacked on. The best harvesting technique I’ve found is to shake the tree and collect what hits the ground. You can admire my technique in the video included in my previous post on pawpaw.

Pawpaw Flower

The more I learn about pawpaw the more impressed I am with it. Why has no one ever heard of this fruit? Why can’t you get it in grocery stores?

Pawpaw at Whole Foods

Unfortunately pawpaw hasn’t quite made it mainstream… yet. While there are plenty of pawpaws feeding the woodlands creatures, they’ve only established themselves at local farmer’s markets and at regional grocery stores. Some of the disadvantages pawpaw’s have which are preventing them from being more mainstream is that they quickly ripen once picked, bruise easily and potentially ferment in their skin once ripe. Some varieties of pawpaw have shown to be better cultivars than others. The ideal pawpaw variety yields many fruit of large size with abundant flesh and few seeds. If Neal Peterson has his way, pawpaw would be seasonal staple around the country.

Neal Peterson tasted his first pawpaw in 1975 and since then he has made it his mission in life to develop pawpaws into viable cultivated crop. Over the past 30+ years he has created pawpaw varieties with outstanding yield, size, flavor and percentage of flesh. For those wishing to look into growing your own pawpaw, he is the authority and source for all things pawpaw.

Winter has well established itself here in Michigan with snow on the ground and temperatures below freezing. It seems that only a week ago I was trekking through the Rawnora landscape in search of pawpaws. What’s a pawpaw you say? That’s a fair question to ask considering this native fruit is relatively new to me as well.

Pawpaw, Latin name asimina triloba, is the largest indigenous fruit in North America. The pear-sized fruit resembles a light green mango in appearance though some fruit bulge at each end looking more like a green Mr. Peanut. The flesh of the fruit it light yellow and has smooth custard like consistency. Each fruit contains 6 to12 black seeds. Pawpaw’s flavor reminds me of banana and mango with hints of vanilla. Some local names given to this native food are Ozark banana, Indiana banana, wild banana, Kentucky banana, banango… Are you noticing a pattern?

2 varieties of pawpaw

There are multiple varieties of wild growing pawpaw. Their fruits vary in size, color, skin thickness, flavor and number of seeds. Here at the camp we are fortunate enough to have a very juicy and tasty variety of pawpaw. The closest relative of the pawpaw grows in the tropics. Pawpaw is related to soursop, sweetsop cherimoya and other Annonaceae family trees… all of which I love to eat. Unfortunately these guys only grow far, far away.

Soursop in Jamaica

Both the pawpaw tree and fruit have complex chemical properties that have both health and agricultural applications. Compounds known as acetogenins in the leaves, twigs and bark of the pawpaws are a natural insecticide and show anti-cancer properties. Pawpaw fruit is higher in protein than most fruits and is also rich in fatty acids. Caprylic acid (octanoic acid) in pawpaw fruits is a compound shown effective against bacteria infection and is also used in supplements taken to suppress candida.

Enjoy this pawpaw hunting video from October of this year and stay tuned for my next post where I’ll show you how to make a pawpaw pie.